Archaeology team unearths mikveh at Strawbery Banke site

Strawbery Banke Museum unearthed yet another piece of history over the past two weeks, under the direction of Alix Martin, museum archaeologist.

Jeanné McCartin

Strawbery Banke Museum unearthed yet another piece of history over the past two weeks, under the direction of Alix Martin, museum archaeologist.

Martin and her team painstakingly uncovered a century-old mikveh on a museum plot, once the sight of the Pecunies house, which was demolished in the 1960s.

It's one of only four historical mikvehs excavated in the Northeast.

"It's exciting to find what we'd hoped to find," Martin says. "It is very gratifying."

A mikveh is a ritual immersion bath used in the Jewish culture since ancient times, Director of Marketing Communications Stephanie Seaward says.

"It's used for a variety of logical reasons, where you would expect you would want to purify your body as well as your soul — or your spiritual state," Seaward says. "It would be used to prepare for a High Holy Day, or marriage, for example."

A bath is constructed of exact dimensions — 3 cubits deep, 1 cubit wide, and 1 cubit long. A cubit is an ancient measure of length, about equal to the length of a forearm — typically about 18 inches or 44 centimeters.

"The idea is that you need to put the entire body in the water, number one, even covering the head," Seacord says. "And the second thing is the water has to be living — from a stream or ocean or even rainwater."

Ronald Pecunies informed the Banke there was likely a mikveh on the property, at the sight of the home he grew up in during the 1940s and '50s. There is no written documentation, Seacord says. But the possibility intrigued Sheila Charles, Martin's predecessor, who began the research and handed on the possibility to Martin.

"(Ronald) was consulting the museum during reinterpretation of the Victory Garden, which was his mother's. ...; So he had spoken a lot about what the house was like and he mentioned there was a mikveh in the basement. His family did not use it for ritual immersion, but he remembered it being there," Martin says. "So, the only mention of a mikveh was in oral history."

Research showed the house was first built in 1898 for leasing purposes. Representatives of the Hebrew Ladies Society bought it in 1912, Martin says. Temple Israel purchased it from the Ladies in 1923. The mikveh was likely built between 1912 and 1923, Martin says.

Members of the archaeological team started digging on the plot between the Abbott Store and the Blacksmith Shop on June 23. Soon after they found promising white shards, Martin says.

On June 27, as more white enameled tiles were uncovered, they were sure they'd found the bath.

"It's pretty evident now that we've exposed most of it that it corresponded with the physical description and it seems to be the correct size and shape — which doesn't have too many other explanations," Martin says. "So that Friday we said, 'This is it.'"

The sight will be left open for people through July.

Its future is unclear, Martin says.

"Typically, when we finish digging, you backfill — the dirt goes back in the hole — which is probably what we'll do," Martin says. "We've recovered enough of the bricks we could create an exhibit with photos and (additional) artifacts to explain what's out there."

The best way to preserve something that is old is to put it back underground, she adds. "It's been preserved for being buried."

Of course there is the issue of sharing this historical find for longer, which is not out of the question.

"We are talking about possibilities, building a structure around it with a Plexiglas top so you can look down at it," Martin says. "We haven't decided how to communicate it to those not there (while it's visible in July). If money was no object it would be made visible and safe."

Martin is researching grant possibilities. Till then, after a period of viewing, the excavated site will likely be filled in, at least until funds are found.

"When we backfill we'll line it with plastic sheeting and put in clean fill so it's easy to take back out again," Martin says.

The dig is part of a Strawbery Banke Field Schools, held every few years.

"It's an opportunity for archaeological students to participate in a dig," Seacord says. "It's more than digging up the site, all the formal practices of a professional archaeologist are followed. ...; Alix directs the students ...; in a systematic excavation of the sight."

The team includes a summer intern, undergraduate students and Banke volunteers who work with the archaeology department year-round.

"It's an opportunity for students to get real life experience, undergrads for example — anthropology or archeological majors," Martin says. "You spend a lot of time in the classroom hearing about other's digs. ...; This way you experience it."

The museum has conducted an excavation of a privy, looking for clues to life more than 200 years ago, and excavated around the Sherburne House to study 17-century history and lifestyles.

"We're not sure how common mikvehs were here. Their use was common, but people seemed to have found community mikvehs to use," Martin says. "Its future? We're still figuring out what to do."

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